On This Day in IUPUI History: January 12, 1992

January 12, 1992.

On this day, United States president George H.W. Bush's Commission on National and Community Service began two days of meetings at the University Place Conference Center, now Hine Hall. The Commission, signed into federal law in 1990, was an independent federal agency charged to encourage American citizens to volunteer in their communities. Two members of the Commission with close ties to IUPUI were Indiana University president Thomas Ehrlich and Leslie Lenkowsky, then president of the Hudson Institute located in Indianapolis and later a professor in IUPUI's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and the School of Environmental and Public Affairs.

In 1993, Congress merged the Commission with another federal agency called ACTION to create the Corporation for National and Community Service. The agency continues to encourage volunteering in communities across the country. While a federal agency, the Corporation functions like a grant-making foundation to fund programs and projects to deal with education, income inequality, and other community ills. President George W. Bush appointed Lenkowsky as CEO of the Corporation in 2001. He served in that position until 2004, when he stepped down to teach at IUPUI and IU-Bloomington.

Please contact IUPUI Special Collections and Archives for records documenting IUPUI's engagement with different communities: city, state, and world. Email us at speccoll@iupui.edu.